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1915 
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A TRUE EPIC 




BY 



A LINCOLN REPUBLICAN 



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THE NEW REGIME 

A True Epic: by a Lincoln Republican 

Wilson, yours the pulse responsive on which politicians laid 

The soft finger of inquiry when you called a spade a spade; 

Then with ears to earth they bent them, as their kind since time of yore, 

Where they heard the mighty mandate they obeyed at Baltimore. 

Wherefore, suffer here the minstrel by Calliope inspired, 
Who from Clio thunder stealing the state secrets has acquired, 
To recount the great achievements of the New Regime to date, 
Aftermath of Armageddon where pretenders met their fate. 

There Republicans divided into rival camps at war 

Like Democracy, the slave-power, two and fifty years before; 

And alike they reaped the whirlwind from the seed themselves had sown, 

While Democracy, regenerate, rose at last into its own. 

Then a wave of goodly feeling, flowing o'er a land distraught, 
Drowned the partisan in patriot as if miracle had wrought — 
Blessed boon of harvest weather : nor was lack of right reform, 
Nor of reapers, nor of gleaners, for to garner 'gainst a storm. 

That monopoly has weakened under pressure of the change, 
Shown in statutes that illumine banking, tariff, trade, and grange, 
Man's chief good their primal object, though scarce less his merchandise, — 
Thine the glory, Altruism, goddess of the starry eyes! 

Currency was made elastic, to expand or to contract 
With the volume of our business, not by mercenary pact ; 
Wise men seven supervising, bankers' bank, the best to guard 
Creditor and debtor fairly ; no more panics our reward. 



Whence is Panic panic-stricken, fearful of her just return 
To Pandora's box of evils ; Hope that she was wont to spurn 
Meanwhile o'er the country roaming in an ecstasy of glee. 
Spread thy pinions, Optimism, heaven and earth belong to thee. 

Tariff wall that frowned imposing, builded to protect the few — 
Toll exacting of the many on things made and most that grew, 
Shorn of terrors by reduction, now lets in the light of day 
On the underworld of business where monopoly works its way. 

It was well to place on incomes of the many well-to-do 
Tax direct for public uses, for of incomes, not a few 
Come direct or indirectly by a special right of way, 
Privilege's road to fortune, and for this the public pay. 

Where impatient oceans waited for the locks, their chaperone, 
Subsidy was, as toll exemption, giv'n the freedom of the zone; 
But the oceans looked on coldly, as uncertain they should wed, 
So the fathers reconsidered, and that parasite is dead. 

Not dead though our national honor, but from struggle hard begun 
Risen victor as an eagle, serpent-baffling, to the sun: 
Grant the New Regime construing, sacrificed a reasonable doubt, 
'Twas the old, the treaty making, caused the international bout. 

Panama, thy mission's ended, oceans vast apart to keep 

What time that of fleets was conquest, and the pirate rode the deep; 

Not opposed to lawful commerce, wanted oceans truly wed, 

Gave the pair to bless their union the canal for marriage-bed. 

Fling your whitecaps high, ye waters, symbols of the myriad craft 
Soon your broad domains to 'liven, blessed messengers to waft 
From America the tidings of democracy's new birth, 
Whose rare fruitage they shall carry to remotest ends of earth. 

Ah, the Christian as the heathen, still is only erring man, 
Ever building towers of Babel the celestial heights to scan, 
While in rage he slays his brother as he slew him at the shrine, 
Or for profit steals advantage by confusing his with thine. 

Aye ! for lo, the seas turn scarlet, and earth trembles at the roar 
Of great engines of destruction, heard — forgotten nevermore; 
War! from out the blue empyrean, seeming thunderbolt it fell, 
Or as cyclone down the valley — but we know it came from hell. 



War, the war of many nations, each his cause proclaiming just, 
Though by law divine or human they are recreant to their trust. 
Hear the uproar of the tumult! How it breaks against the sky — 
To fall back upon the heartaches that to Heaven vainly cryl 

Oh, the weeping of the women I Oh, the marring of the men ! 
What to them the high inquiry, Who first broke commandments ten? 
Gracious God, the vengeance thine is, but was other way there none 
For who know not what they're doing — them so pitied by thy Son? 

Nay, they join them to their idols, and encarnadine the sea 
That has parted to engulf them who to war-lords bend the knee ; 
Yea, they sacrifice to Moloch, and Jehovah waxes wroth 
O'er his violated altars ; the elect have broken troth. 

Sweet the spirit of forbearance! Oh ye ruthless warring powers, 
It was singing in your trade winds, it is sighing in your bowers ; 
From religion's cradle driven, and on Calvary crucified, 
It found refuge in your temples, but ye would not it should bide; 

And as lava blood is flowing, to recur until the day 
Europe's martial rule shall vanish, and her armaments decay ; 
But the world is still revolving, night is darkest nearest morn, 
And Columbia sets the standard for the ages yet unborn. 

In the clouds a bow is forming, bright with promises of peace 
To a greater world than Roman, from a wiser one than Greece; 
It is given as a token, an imperial people's word, 
That the dove shall bear the olive ere from scabbard fly their sword. 

Nor imports it that descendants of the Aztec and the Don 
In successive revolutions reeds produce to lean upon; 
Slow and many the gradations from the savage to the saint, 
In unmixed Caucasian Christian still is found the savage taint. 

Mexico's internal troubles we could hardly make our own, 
Ours the part of peaceful neighbor, theirs to fight it out alone, 
We extending mediation; and this policy stuck to 
Is presented as example for the Old World and the New. 

True, John Milton, "peace hath victories", witness ours at Vera Cruz 
Where in spite of all temptations the occasion to misuse, 
We stopped short of easy conquest, choosing there to watch and wait 
Till relieved, unless our duty to step in and rule the state. 



Heaven spare us intervention, but if weaving in the loom 

Of political evolution that will Mexico entomb, 

Then with peace, the dead arisen as new states, shall shine as stars 

In a continental empire that will make an end of wars. 

But to dull routine returning, the affairs that daily grind, 
Then the source of some depression or delusion of the mind, 
By standpatters much distorted to discredit the Regime 
That for good and urgent reasons would its promises redeem, — 

Yet, within the rule of reason, it remained to tie the hands 
Of directors interlocking, where permit those doubtful bands, 
Or forbid, as chance affording evil to take root and sprout 
And to flourish in concealment past the government's finding out; 

And a Federal Trade Commission with a court of fit review 
To create, to try trade issues, under regulations new: 
And, in spite of party feeling that revived to make home run 
At ensuing Fall elections, what remained to do was done. 

Nor will student of affairs in the future fail to see 

That a lack of business conscience justified democracy 

In defensive legislation, fortifying that great law 

Whose enforcement rescued commerce from monopoly's greedy maw. 

Sherman, spirit earth-departed, monumental here thy fame, 
Bulwark of commercial freedom, stamped forever with thy name, — 
By the night of fire a pillar and of grateful cloud by day — 
Though thyself denied free Canaan, blessed in having shown the way. 

Trial oft seems sent to prove us ; such the sudden going mad 
Of earth's hemisphere yclept Eastern, for ourselves at first as bad, 
If not worse, than for belligerents ; still a blessing in disguise 
For the New Regime, they proving to occasion new could rise. 

Splendidly they met the crisis, not unlike as if foreseen ; 
Balances unsettled balanced, freed American marine 
Of restrictions in a measure so to take at flood the tide, 
And sound currency in plenty for emergencies supplied. 

But the climax of the action in the view of the anoint 
Was the placing of a war tax, caused by Europe out of joint, 
We enjoying peace profoundest; for these really foreign tolls. 
Unexpected, fell on voters near the opening of the polls. 



IK*** ' 




Courage is one half the battle in the brutal cause of might, 

But a very rod of Aaron when it battles for the right ; 

Whence it was the New Regimists, risen above base party fears, 

And upon their record standing, power secured for two more years. 

Statesmen, or if not, yet chosen their grave duties to discharge, 
Not within my Muse's province on the future to enlarge; 
Her's the lessons of the by-gone, none more timely than this one: 
There are duties of negation, things the better left undone. 

What has Congress with the Suffrage, which the fathers left the states, 
Or with Prohibition, left to household gods and excise rates, 
Or affairs domestic other, such as marriage or divorce, 
By Amendment Constitutional, or by statute to enforce ; 

What with Primary devices, the Recall of any kind, 
Initiative or Referendum, keys perchance town clock to wind, 
But the nation's timepiece — never; tools of common clay begot, 
Or from charnel houses stolen — galvinized Afrthenian rot. 

If the states will, let them — tinker ; for the Congress, enterprise 
High still waits, and where so needful as where floods most paralyze. 
At the cost of half a billion we have sundered rock and loam 
In a world-wide benefaction ; let us now begin at home. 

What, Calliope, art going? Pegasus already flown, 

Weary of unskilful rider in a realm to verse unknown? 

Nay, of Hippocrene drink deeper, less for culture than mankind, 

To whom prithee a last message by thy minstrel old and blind. — 

Minstrel, once again the vision : Old World blood and treasure spilled, 
And her industries neglected, and her spirit voices stilled, — 
Empire on the water beckons, and on land surpassing part, 
Duty summons into service New World brawn and brain and heart : 

Yet withal, adjure thy people, every housetop tile a tongue, 
That they keep intact their charter, ark of covenant among; 
Tried in peace and war the system that depends on them to save, 
It will serve to guard the freeman as it served to free the slave. 

December, 1914. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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